A Useless Masquerade
by abcdefGRYhijklmnop
Summary: Will one masquerade ball make her see that her hard face is all a useless masquerade? set after MoA. fluffier than Seeing Triangles, maybe more cliche xD I'm sorry. mostly percy x reyna, with slight clovis x lacy
1. Chapter 1

**a/n: hey, I ish back! Writing another Percy x Reyna fic, just because I'm bored, but, truth be told, I did want to write something like this for a while. I even drew a picture for this. Set right after Mark of Athena, in Camp Jupiter. No percabeth, with slight anti-percabeth, no offense to anybody. If you're a percabeth fan, you don't have to read this. On with the story. Two to three chapters. Mostly Percy x Reyna, with suggested Clovis x Lacy. Thanks to Retrobution for reviewing Seeing Triangles. Thanks to Wisdom conquers all, Divine Psyche and mr teddy lupin for adding Seeing Triangles to story alerts, too. Thanks to Leaseablue for favoriting Seeing Triangles.**

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><p><strong>REYNA<strong>

Reyna had long ago mastered the art of weaving through crowds effortlessly and seamlessly. By now, it was instinct. She could barely hear over all the buzz about the 'dance.' Honestly, she didn't understand what a 'dance' was. She understood what it was _to_ dance, but not _what_ a dance was. Well, you couldn't blame her. After all, she had only ever lived in a magical, almost non-existent island and a camp that was isolated from the rest of the world.

It was late, and almost time for the dance. The girls around her were showing each other their dresses, and the guys were sympathizing with each other—they didn't really want to go to the dance. As for Reyna… well, she didn't even prepare for the dance. The dance was tonight, and she was fully intending not to go. Well, maybe she wanted to have a peek, but then she would leave. She had things to plan, in the Principia. She simply couldn't afford to waste time on a silly dance.

Somewhere along the way, somebody grabbed her arm and pulled her aside.

The girl had blond pigtails and braces, but she was still pretty. There was something about her that made you _look_. Reyna recognized her as a Venus—uh, Aphrodite girl that Piper had introduced her to a few days before. Her name was Lacy.

Lacy was positively bobbing up and down with excitement. She was your typical sanguine personality, only she was a bit more organized. "Reyna! Just who I was looking for. You know, you can't avoid us forever. Come on!"

_This girl runs like a deer_, Reyna thought, as she was being dragged away. She expected to be taken to Lacy's temporary cabin, but instead, she was dragged too her _own_ cabin.

Looking in, Reyna's hand flew up to her mouth to stifle a gasp. These children of the goddess of love had been busy.

On one wall of her cabin now hung a full length mirror, and a pair of 'gladiator' slippers sat at the foot of her bed. On her bed, two dresses had been laid out. One was a one-shouldered dress that was white at the top, the color deepening into a rich teal color toward the hem. The other one was a deep baroque purple, with golden beads that started just under the chest, the gaps between them shrinking toward the hem. It had spaghetti straps that Reyna thought she could snap with a slice of butter.

"Lacy… you didn't do this alone, did you?"

"No, of course not! Piper and Drew helped me pick out the dresses, even though Piper had to make Drew do it, and Mitchell helped hand up the mirror," she laughed. "Now, sit down!"

She steered Reyna over to the dressing table, and pushed her down onto the stool. She undid the thick braid that hung down Reyna's back. She scooped up half of it and expertly twisted it into an elegant knot at the back of her head.

Honestly, Reyna was secretly glad she didn't have to do all this alone. Doing that herself would mean admitting that she did want to go to the dance, or ball, or whatever. It would also mean that she was admitting to herself that she was excited about it, especially if she put in the slightest amount of effort. But no, of course she would do that—she would be hurting her pride.

Lacy took a good look at her face. "Hmm, I know you won't want to wear make-up (and you're pretty enough already), but this is the least you can wear. Now stop squirming!" she giggled as she swiped some skin-colored powder on Reyna's face, which actually didn't feel so bad. "No one will see much of your face tonight, though, considering the theme."

The 'theme' of the dance was 'Venetian,' so basically it was going to be a masquerade ball. A few days ago, the Venus and Aphrodite kids handed out masks for everyone. Each mask would have only one that was identical. During the ball, they would have to find the person with the same mask, and share one waltz before revealing themselves. They would only be allowed to dance with their partners during the dance; no one else.

It really was going to be quite exciting—Reyna just didn't want to admit it.

"Now, which dress would you like to wear?"

"I don't _like_ wearing dresses _at all_. I don't want to go back to being an accursed Barbie doll."

"Pick."

"Well, I don't like to feel out of uniform…"

Lacy stared at her incredulously. "Well, it looks like we've decided. Don't worry, you're going to be as pretty as a posy," she smiled.

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><p><strong>an: so, how was it? Short? I know. Too much dialogue? Cheesy? Flat? Stupid? Way too cliché? I felt that Lacy was little OOC, did you? I was thinking a little of Pinkie Pie so… If OOC, I'm sorry for that. Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**a/n: hi, guys! Sorry for not updating for so long! It was Easter week, and I suppose everybody knows that you can either fast or go without some daily stuff you do. And so, my personal commitment was going without writing fanfictions. At all. So, my thanks to NikiD1233, Divine Psyche, raegandb123, AnnaBeth5, Astra'shadow and Everlastingice277, who all either reviewed, favorited, or added to story alerts. Thanks a lot, guys!**

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><p><strong>PERCY<strong>

Percy sighed. It was hard to accept that Hera had been right. About what, you ask? Well, about Annabeth. The whole thing about her being difficult and things—they were true after all, and the both of them had just of fell apart. It had only been a few days since they returned to camp, but already he was regretting it.

In short, he was depressed.

"Percy!" somebody called. Percy turned around and saw that it was Mitchell, a child of Aphrodite. He was running toward Percy, with Clovis, son of Hypnos, in tow.

"Hey, Mitchell," Percy replied, unenthusiastically, noticing that Mitchell looked pale and tired. He was sniffling a little, too.

"Remember what we talked about? You letting me make you come to the dance, because you owe me one? Like, when we were in Rome? Yeah. Well, I'm not feeling well, so I'm letting Clovis take over, okay? Great, thanks," he sneezed, before dragging his feet away.

Watching Mitchell stagger away—to the infirmary, Percy supposed—Percy hoped he would get well soon. Meanwhile, turning to Clovis, he saw that the other demigod's head was lolling, and that his back was slumped. Clovis had fallen asleep—again.

Percy gave him a small shake, waking him up. Clovis fumbled with the satchel Mitchell had shoved into his grasp a few moments ago, and allowed Percy to lead the way to his cabin. He _might_ just have fallen asleep a couple of time on the way (what? It _was_ pretty far away), but in the end he managed to get there without collapsing on the ground, in a deep sleep.

Walking into Percy's praetor cabin, the first thing both demigods saw was a mask. An elaborately decorated gold mask that would only cover half the wearer's face, hanging on the wall, with a sharp nose that looked almost like a beak—creepy Venetian masquerade style. Below one of the holes made for the wearer's eyes were three stickers that looked like gems, with the one that was slightly bigger than the other two positioned in the middle. Above the other 'eye' were three stickers arranged in the same way. On the corner just above the right eye were three small feathers—the emerald green one in between the two gold ones.

For a moment, Percy was so lost in the empty holes of the mask that he forgot all about Clovis. But one snore from him was enough to bring Percy back to reality.

Nudging Clovis awake, he asked, "Uh, Clovis? What was it Mitchell sent you to do?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," he yawned. "He, uh, told me to give you these. He didn't really trust me to do a lot of stuff, but I was the only one available, so yeah."

Clovis turned the bag, spilling out its contents onto Percy's bed. Out came a pair of trousers in a shade of green so dark it was almost black, a white shirt, and a gold-ish colored tie to match his mask. Having done that, Clovis waited while Percy changed in the bathroom, and then checking to see if he needed help with the tie. When Percy said he knew how to do it, having gone to some private schools with uniforms, Clovis left. "You can wear that outfit with sneakers, if you want, but Mitchell told me to tell you not to change _anything_ else about that outfit, or he'll slaughter us both," he winked, as he stepped out the door, leaving to get himself prepared.

Percy stared at his own reflection and couldn't understand what he saw. He didn't really look like himself. Almost, but not quite. The greater, wiser, and more experienced part of him told himself that there was no way that his 'mask-mate', as the Aphrodite kids called them, would be Annabeth, even though a tiny, squeaky voice inside was wishing away.

Being much too embarrassed to come out looking the way he did, Percy holed up in his cabin, refusing to come out, until it was actually time for the dance. When the sun had set and the sky was a beautiful indigo, and paper lanterns had been lit outside, Percy decided to come out.

He stood around the corners, as he usually did at dances, until a girl spun around and he saw a mask that matched his exactly. He was disappointed to see that she wasn't blond, but from what little he could see of her face, he could tell she was really pretty.

Determined, he strode up to her and tapped her shoulder.

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><p><strong>an: so? How was it? Much as I don't like Annabeth, I had to make him 'miss' her a little bit, because otherwise it would have been OOC. Explanations as to why Lacy was OOC in the previous chapter will be explained in the next chapter. Coming probably tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. And please, if you decide to review this chapter, don't review with immature things like 'he shouldn't have broken up with her!' or 'his "mask-mate" should have been Annabeth!' or anything like that, because, like I said at the beginning of this fic, if you're a real stickler for Percabeth, and anti all pairings that involve Percy or Annabeth but is not Percabeth, you don't have to read this. But otherwise, please review! Thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/n: Hi everyone! Sorry for not updating for almost another week. But anyways, thanks to Astra'shadow, ****Tratie-Zutara-and-Perlia-Fan, Xxpercyjackson-luver12xX, .anonymous, Heart-Of-Caramel, and bbal956 for adding to favorites, story alerts or reviewing. Also, for a certain anon reviewer out there, I **_**don't **_**know what happens in the Mark of Athena yet, I'm just making predictions, sort of. Besides, did you read the slogan? It says 'unleash your imagination.' We can invent whatever we want. Oh, and Atra'shadow, I don't know if this chapter will be a bit longer than the previous ones. All that aside, on with the story.**

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><p><strong>REYNA<strong>

It was like she had been shipwrecked in a sea of faces. Everywhere, there were campers and fauns moving around, most of them unrecognizable with their formal attire. It moved so slowly you wouldn't notice until they were already on the other side of the room. She just couldn't find the person she was looking for.

She wasn't looking for an identical mask—no, that she was not. Instead, she was looking for Lacy. She wanted to thank her, because, had Lacy not made her go to the ball, she would have regretted staying inside with the guilty conscience that she had left her mask-mate with no dance partner that night. When she finally saw Lacy drifting away, she opened her mouth to call her, but Lacy slid away, sneaking a nervous glance at Reyna. She was muttering something. Reyna caught "Piper's charmspeak," "hyper," and "lasted for half an hour."

Reyna looked away, a little hurt.

She was just about recovering when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She jumped. "Aak!" she yelped, turning around. "Oh, uh, hi…" her voice faltered, seeing the mask on the person's face, which she knew very well was identical to hers. She saw a mass of black hair behind the mask, and though, the eyes were shadowed, she had a sneaking suspicion of who her mask-mate was.

Luckily, she was saved by some child of Venus—uh, Aphrodite, whatever—tap the microphone on stage. Drew was her name, Reyna recalled. "It's time for the first dance now. If you feel awkward, that's okay, hons, after you lift your masks and reveal your sorry faces, your partner won't want to dance anymore, and you can sit on the outskirts of the party, or something."

Reyna felt her hand itch to slap that girl for talking to so many people that way, but the music had started to play. It was the classic waltz piece, Blue Daniel. It was easy to dance to, at least. But… she didn't _want_ to dance, no matter how much she wanted to know who her mask-mate was. She wasn't even sure if it was a good idea to take off her own mask. She was quite sure that she'd die of embarrassment.

"I… don't think I will dance…" she stammered.

"Oh, come on. Please? Just one dance, just so we can take these creepy masks off. And then we can take a walk or something."

Reyna sighed. "Oh, all right."

Reluctantly, she let her partner take her hand, and soon they were following the current. They just moved with the crowd. Surprisingly, she remembered the steps to the dance that she had learned with Hylla while at Circe's spa. She even found herself enjoying it.

All too soon, the dance was over. They pulled their masks back.

"Reyna," her partner said, not at all surprised, with amusement tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Percy," she replied, equally unsurprised. "You promised we could walk now," she stated, her tone challenging him to deny it.

"We've only—fine," he agreed. "But we have to come back and clap for whoever gets nominated for best mask-mates at the end of the night," he said, offering her his arm. Reyna quickly looked away, pretending not to see the gesture. Percy sighed, and proceeded to walk ahead, Reyna walking beside him.

On the way, they passed through the small flower garden the Ceres and Demeter children had planted. The fragrance was strong, but not overpowering. They had chosen the perfect flowers whose scents seemed to sing in harmony. Percy picked a few mallow flowers, and carelessly strung it in her hair. Reyna guessed he was just glad to be free of a relationship for the moment.

That night, they sky seemed clearer than ever. The brightest star, the evening star, was the centre of them all. _Evangeline_, Reyna thought. _I used to call that star Evangeline, because I believed that she was a promise that someday, Hylla and I could be free. She used to be the only star I could see from the window of our room at Circe's spa, magnified by our tears, so that it seemed to fill up the whole sky. Now, we _are_ free. Thank you, Evangeline._

Her eyes welled up with tears, and as a drop rolled down her cheek, someone's hand reached out and brushed it away. She knew that hand wasn't hers.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, the honeyed voice of a child of the love goddess was calling all masqueraders to return to the ball. They were going to announce the winning mask-mates. They arrived just in time to see them hold up an exact copy of the masks they had been wearing, the cue for them to join the planners on stage.

Lacy and Clovis (who, remember, was filling in for Mitchell), placed little fake-gold circlets on their heads.

But Reyna lifted the circlet from her head. "No, we don't deserve this. Lacy you worked hard on this—you and your half siblings. You deserve to have this, because you even got me to come," Reyna smiled, placing the circlet on the blonde's head. She was filled with warmth at the sight of Lacy's flush of pleasure at being given the circlet to wear.

Percy followed Reyna's lead and gave the circlet to Clovis. "You stayed awake long enough to fill in for Mitchell _and_ drag me over here. You deserve this, man."

The crowd was hesitant for a moment, but soon it decided to agree with the wearers of the golden masks. A round of applause rose from the crowd.

Percy gave Clovis a little shove towards Lacy. "Go on, dance!"

They did eventually begin to dance, but it was a little silly and awkward, with Clovis and Lacy each taking turns to step on the other's foot, neither of them keeping time to the music.

Percy held out his hand. "Should we help them out?"

"What about Annabeth? I didn't see her around tonight."

"Let's not worry about her just yet," he smiled, as he led her down next to the stumbling Clovis and Lacy.

As they danced away, Reyna realized that maybe to him, and only to him, the tough act she always put up was all a useless masquerade.

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><p><strong>an: so, how was it? It was a little bit longer, wasn't it? Anyway, we all know that star was also called Evangeline in the Disney movie the Princess and the Frog, but there's a little quote about the evening star, Evangeline, which came from a very early part of one of the Greek myths about one of their greatest heroes. Can you guess which one? The winner will decide whether or not I'll add an epilogue to this. You can put it in a review. Thanks!**


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